EV SX Loudspeakers: Straightforward Solutions for High School Sound

February 15th, 2006

Local full-service sound, video and lighting company Advanced Sound Technology handled the design and installation duties, working with equipment supplied by Jack’s Music of Conway, Ark.“We have relied upon the sound quality and durability of various Sx loudspeakers for many regional installations,“ Jon Rodgers of Jack’s Music reported,“ and we knew they would deliver the kind of high performance the school was looking for without overspending.“

“We used Sx300s to replace the speakers installed when the school’s Panther Pavilion was built about three years ago. The original speakers were inadequate to tackle the typical reverberation and intelligibility issues of a school gym. Based upon the school’s budget and what we needed to accomplish, we opted for a centrally flown cluster to avoid delay issues. Since the room was basically a rectangle with a high ceiling, we spec’d six Sx300 boxes: two horizontally arrayed to cover the seats on each side of the gym, with a single box flown to cover each opposite end of the room.

“We worked with (EV Tech Support) Robert Deyarmond to predict and confirm this configuration in EASE, along with power requirements. Robert is a great asset for us and for EV when it comes to providing a high level of attention to detail. EV CPS2T amplifiers were then spec’d to power the 70V system. No processing was necessary; as predicted, there were no delay issues, and no high pass filters were needed. Simple but effective - the Sx300s sound great, and EV amps always sound good. The idea was to install a straightforward-but-high-performance system, and that’s exactly what they have - the sound will be superb for years to come.“

“For the Don Jones Stadium, we needed to bring that critical intelligibility factor to an outdoors setting, which is exactly what the Sx600PI was designed to do,“ Rodgers added. This was another “second time around’ install; the system that was installed when the field was built was comprised of four 30-watt paging horns mounted on four different light poles. This did little apart from create that familiar old school high school sound effect where you hear everything three or four times, and all at a minimal volume level. It was a sound system that people couldn’t hear once the crowd noise level got up, which made it pretty useless. We had success with the Sx600PI before - they are just an awesome outdoor speaker. We opted to use them again in this application, and worked with Robert at EV to determine the most efficient configuration, both in terms of audio performance and budget.

““We determined it would be most effective to use two Sx600PIs to throw the length of the field, either side of a medium format MH640AP stadium horn shooting across to the visitor’s side. The MH640AP is a two-way system, featuring a 10-inch LF driver and a 2-inch HF driver, offering 60x40-degree coverage and directivity control down to 500 Hz. The Sx600PI gives us full-range capacity, meaning music playback sounds great for the first time in the stadium’s history, and the horn gives us enough power and constant directivity to clear the field with intelligible audio. The combination of the two works perfectly, providing weather-resistant “wall-to-wall’ controlled sound in an outdoor setting that you can hear six city blocks away.“ The stadium system is powered by two EV CPS2.8 amplifiers and processed by an EV Dx38.

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Electro-Voice (EV), is a professional audio brand of Telex Communications, Inc., a leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of sophisticated audio, wireless, multimedia, aircraft, broadcast and communications equipment for commercial, professional and industrial customers. Telex Communications markets its products in more than 80 countries under the brands EV, Telex, RTS, Dynacord, Midas, Klark Teknik and others.